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Chapter thirty

It had taken every shred of self-control Aidan possessed not to run after Rae when she’d left the natatorium, but as the last few hours of night stretched on, he could feel her working out her feelings on her pieces of silver, and he wished he had.

What she’d asked him to do… her words had played on repeat in his thoughts since.

She’d looked so fucking beautiful in his arms, cheeks stained pink, her lips swollen from kissing him, the sounds she’d made he wanted to hear again and again.

His canines extended at the thought, and he had to down half a dozen bags of blood from one of his stores just to quell the worst of the hunger.

Feeding from her would blur every remaining line between them, but it didn’t stop him imagining it, imagining all the ways he wanted to take her again and again.

A quiet part of him knew it went far beyond physical desire.

When he’d found her down in Cormac’s basement, her fear consuming her, all he’d known for certain was that he would do anything to snuff it out.

Sometime after dawn, he found Baelin at the far end of the manor in the main security room. The raid on the test facilities was still a few nights away, but this couldn’t wait. It was a conversation he should have had with his Ascendant a long time ago.

“My lord,” Baelin said in greeting as Aidan entered the room he spent most of his time in.

“Don’t start with that bullshit,” Aidan told him, slumping into the sofa pushed back along the far wall and pulling a pre-rolled joint out of his top pocket.

Baelin should have been sleeping, but like Aidan, the Vampire slept very little, something that had given them ample opportunity to have this discussion over the years, and few excuses not to.

Aidan took a long, slow drag of his joint, taking in the sight of the security room.

Five screens—two vertical—keyboards, drives, and humming devices sat across an arced desk wrapping around Baelin’s chair.

The room would have been dark, but the screens illuminated everything, though there was very little to see.

Baelin had nothing on the walls, no piles of junk lying around.

Everything was tidied away in the cabinets along the wall opposite, and Aidan knew that though the desk looked like a messy tangle of wires and hardware, Baelin had his own order to it all.

One screen showed a top-down view of the city in black and green with small flashing dots; another ran lines of code, waiting for a prompt. Baelin turned to face him, and Aidan handed over the joint.

“Baxter’s been difficult to track.” His Ascendant took a drag before blowing out a puff of smoke, passing the joint back to Aidan.

“Rae just left.” Aidan rubbed at the scar on his chest. She’d gone out into the city on foot, and like a damn fool, he’d almost gone after her.

She’d be back for Nim. This time. Aidan already knew Quinn had gone out after her and would be keeping a close eye, reporting back to Baelin.

He kept his attention on her regardless, on everyone she interacted with, everywhere she went.

“Quinn has eyes on her. She’s meeting Omnia cadets.

” Baelin’s eyes glazed a little, not from the weed, but as if he were seeing through Quinn’s eyes, Aidan knew.

With how few Elymas remained, Aidan had always understood what a privilege it was to be able to watch Baelin’s connection with the daemon, to be permitted to witness it. A gift he had never taken lightly.

Aidan knew precisely who Rae was with. Knew Baelin knew that too.

But he appreciated the update all the same.

He gave the unit members stationed in the surrounding security rooms a silent command to take a walk, wishing he had a glass of visk for this conversation.

He took another drag of the joint instead.

“We need to discuss my lineage.” No point evading it any longer.

His Ascendant waited. Aidan felt his friend’s relief, though he’d always made it a point never to pry on Baelin’s thoughts, never to press.

When Baelin didn’t say anything, Aidan blew out a breath.

Vampires were known for their fondness of tradition, and though Baelin had always seemed to loathe it as much as he had, Aidan still found himself hesitating.

“Quinn has an excellent sense of smell,” Baelin said when the silence stretched on, holding out a hand for the joint, “but a well-guarded Elymas secret is that daemons can sniff out other Orders.”

Aidan’s eyes flicked up to meet Baelin’s.

“You knew all this time.” He couldn’t help the upward turn at the corner of his mouth.

The words came slow at first, but he told his Ascendant all of it: about his Fae mother, his family.

The secret his uncle had almost killed him for.

The secret he had to protect until the time was right.

Baelin listened in silence, nodding thoughtfully.

Aidan felt no disgust from his friend, no distaste.

Only understanding, and a weight he hadn’t realised he’d been carrying lifted at the admission.

He should have done this years ago, but if Aidan didn’t return from the facility raids, he needed his Ascendant to continue what he’d started. Too many lives depended on it now.

When he’d finished, Baelin silently made his way to the wall of cabinets and pulled out two glasses and a bottle of visk. He poured a double measure in each before handing Aidan a glass. Aidan raised an eyebrow at his friend and waited.

“To something better,” Baelin said, a hint of hope and pride unfurling from him.

Aidan chuckled, the tightness easing in his chest. “To something better.”

They discussed the schedule for the units, their rotation for the rest of the week and the facility raids in a few nights’ time.

Aidan didn’t need reports; they were always readily available to him with nothing more than a thought, but he respected his team, and he preferred to have them deliver the information to him this way.

At first, they all suspected the same: that he was testing them somehow, testing their honesty and their integrity against what he could feel and understand if he simply slipped into their minds.

It certainly always began that way, but it was never how it ended.

“Orion is pleased with Reed’s integration so far,” Baelin explained.

Aidan nodded. The Shifter was the first Fae to enter his ranks, but Reed had taken to it remarkably well, and the other Vampires, for the most part, had tolerated him.

When the Fae had first thought to request it, Aidan had been keeping a close mental eye on him, not long after Rae had found him in the Second District.

Within the span of less than one night, Aidan had been certain Reed would make a strong asset to his team, and with Beck’s inability to control himself near Rae, it was a logical solution.

Hours passed, and still, the Witch hadn’t returned.

Aidan knew he should get some rest, but until Rae was back inside the manor, he couldn’t.

When the day had first begun, he’d cast a wide net around her, but as the day progressed and exhaustion set in, he found himself searching the minds of fewer and fewer citizens as Rae passed through the streets of Demesia.

“You knew about Rae then too,” Aidan said after a while, tracking her progress towards Silver Star. Baelin must have known Rae was a Witch all along, likely before Aidan even had.

His Ascendant nodded. “She’s been good for you.” He laughed dryly. “The council would lose their mind if they knew your Odalik was a Witch. It’s too perfect. A human wife, they’d never look twice. But a Witch? You’re halfway to achieving your goal.”

Rae was meant to be a means to an end, but not that end. Aidan rubbed at his chest again, wondering when and how he’d fucked this up so much. “I can’t get this damn feeling to shift.”

“I think they call it l—”

“I meant the bullet wound.”

“I know exactly what you meant.” Baelin’s amber eyes softened as they met his, and Aidan felt the small trickle of grief that fell from him, the emotion he was always so careful to keep locked tight.

Laramie had died during childbirth, the baby along with her, not long before he and Baelin had met.

And though Baelin had only spoken about her a handful of times over the years, during days when they should have been sleeping, fuelled by visk and weed, he had never spoken of love, though it had poured from him with every word about his long dead Odalik.

He looked at Aidan now with a look that gave no room for abnegation.

“You know as well as I do, my uncle beat all but the anger from me.” Aidan tried not to recall the worst of it and failed.

He shifted his thoughts back to Rae, to the way she had his entire household wrapped around her finger.

They adored her—it was impossible not to, Shaw had said when Aidan had found him preparing a plate of potatoes for the Witch.

“Rae barely tolerates me anyway; her hatred is so palpable I’m sure even you can feel it. ”

“Hate is a lot like l—”

“Baelin.”

His Ascendant had the gall to grin at him.

Aidan sighed. He and Rae had both spun so many lies.

She was in her old studio, a sense of melancholy and nostalgia clinging to her, to everything she touched.

Though Aidan knew she’d been lying to him, that she more than likely didn’t have a damn clue where his magic was, all he cared about was making sure she got back to the manor safely.

With a certainty that had his scar burning, he knew Baelin was right.

“Quinn’s found something,” Baelin said, straightening. “You need to see this—”

Aidan didn’t hesitate. He stepped inside his Ascendant’s mind and oriented himself to see what Quinn saw, what the daemon was showing Baelin.

“A hybrid,” Aidan murmured. He couldn’t feel him, had been completely blind to his presence without Quinn’s eyes, but what he did feel was fear, sharp and strong.

“Rae.” He pulled back from Baelin and Quinn, his focus solely on Rae.

Someone was in her studio. Someone he couldn’t get a read on. Another test subject.

Rae? he called out to her, praying she wouldn’t shut him out.

I’m fine. She wasn’t. She wasn’t breathing. Aidan was on his feet, cursing the fucking daylight and every Vampire along with it.

“Just over an hour until nightfall,” Baelin said, tapping away at his computer.

I’m sending a car to the studio, Aidan told Rae, her relief palpable. He was on his feet, already out of the room on his way to the garage.

“You’re going out there?” Baelin asked behind him.

“Don’t try and tell me you wouldn’t,” Aidan said without turning back. “I need your eyes, Baelin.” He didn’t wait for his Ascendant’s response as he broke into a run.